Uchiyama keeps WBA 130lb belt

By Joe Koizumi

Unbeaten WBA super-feather champ Takashi Uchiyama (15-0, 12 KOs), 130, Japan, impressively retained his belt as he positively kept stalking much taller Angel Granados (18-9, 8 KOs), 129.25, from Venezuela, and finally caught him with a vicious looping right to drop the lanky challenger face first to prompt the referee’s intervention at 1:42 of the sixth round on Monday in Saitama (close to our capital Tokyo), Japan. Uchiyama, making his initial defense, kept his cool and threw stinging lefts with precision despite a five-inch height difference to finally gain his judgment of distance prior to a sudden stoppage. (More to come)